Guns N' Roses' Axl Rose calls Slash "a cancer"

Duff McKagan thinks a Guns N' Roses reunion could happen, but Axl Rose doesn't share those feelings. In fact, his loathing of former bandmate Slash has reached a new level. He now calls the guitarist "a cancer."

In a new interview with his friend, songwriter Del James, who inspired the song November Rain, Rose threw another in a series of wet blankets on the idea of the original Guns N' Roses ever getting back together, saying that it was "highly doubtful for us to have more than one of the alumni up with us at any given time.

"I suppose Duff could play guitar on something somewhere but there's zero possibility of me having anything to do with Slash."

"Slash either should not have been in Guns to begin with or should have left after [the EP] Lies" Axl Rose

It's not me, it's Slash

The friction between Rose and Slash is long-standing and deep-seated. The very mention of the guitarist's name gets Rose's fur up in a big way.

"Slash either should not have been in Guns to begin with or should have left after [the EP] Lies," says Rose. "In a nutshell, personally I consider him a cancer and better removed, avoided - and the less anyone heard of him or his supporters, the better.

Rose doesn't even like Slash's playing - in his opinion, the guitarist has lost his creativity and seems to be more interested about being "a whore for the limelight." Ouch!

When asked about the excessive recording time spent making Chinese Democracy, as to whether he was trying to make "the best album ever made," Rose said, "That's fucking ridiculous and more negative media nonsense. We were all just trying to do our best for the fans and ourselves."

But when asked whether he thought, at any time, that he was making a masterpiece, Rose answered, "Obviously, media, elements of the public, fans and our detractors had all kinds of things going on such as high hopes, expectations, pressure, naysayers, etc.

"I don't think anyone would mind discovering a diamond mine and I don't think anyone in any competitive field would get very far if they didn't have dreams, aspirations or simply hope to do well. That said, these types of comments are more from our detractors, pulled out of their ass if not thin air."

OK, then. Personally, we think he's a lot funnier when he talks about Slash.